The Linux Kernel is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public
License version 2 only (GPL-2.0), as provided in LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0,
with an explicit syscall exception described in
LICENSES/exceptions/Linux-syscall-note, as described in the COPYING file.

This documentation file provides a description of how each source file
should be annotated to make its license clear and unambiguous.
It doesn’t replace the Kernel’s license.

The license described in the COPYING file applies to the kernel source
as a whole, though individual source files can have a different license
which is required to be compatible with the GPL-2.0:

GPL-1.0+ : GNU General Public License v1.0 or later
GPL-2.0+ : GNU General Public License v2.0 or later
LGPL-2.0 : GNU Library General Public License v2 only
LGPL-2.0+ : GNU Library General Public License v2 or later
LGPL-2.1 : GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 only
LGPL-2.1+ : GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 or later

Aside from that, individual files can be provided under a dual license,
e.g. one of the compatible GPL variants and alternatively under a
permissive license like BSD, MIT etc.

The User-space API (UAPI) header files, which describe the interface of
user-space programs to the kernel are a special case. According to the
note in the kernel COPYING file, the syscall interface is a clear boundary,
which does not extend the GPL requirements to any software which uses it to
communicate with the kernel. Because the UAPI headers must be includable
into any source files which create an executable running on the Linux
kernel, the exception must be documented by a special license expression.

The common way of expressing the license of a source file is to add the
matching boilerplate text into the top comment of the file. Due to
formatting, typos etc. these “boilerplates” are hard to validate for
tools which are used in the context of license compliance.

An alternative to boilerplate text is the use of Software Package Data
Exchange (SPDX) license identifiers in each source file. SPDX license
identifiers are machine parsable and precise shorthands for the license
under which the content of the file is contributed. SPDX license
identifiers are managed by the SPDX Workgroup at the Linux Foundation and
have been agreed on by partners throughout the industry, tool vendors, and
legal teams. For further information see https://spdx.org/

The Linux kernel requires the precise SPDX identifier in all source files.
The valid identifiers used in the kernel are explained in the section
License identifiers and have been retrieved from the official SPDX
license list at https://spdx.org/licenses/ along with the license texts.

The SPDX license identifier in kernel files shall be added at the first
possible line in a file which can contain a comment. For the majority
of files this is the first line, except for scripts which require the
‘#!PATH_TO_INTERPRETER’ in the first line. For those scripts the SPDX
identifier goes into the second line.

Style:

The SPDX license identifier is added in form of a comment. The comment
style depends on the file type:

If a specific tool cannot handle the standard comment style, then the
appropriate comment mechanism which the tool accepts shall be used. This
is the reason for having the “/* */” style comment in C header
files. There was build breakage observed with generated .lds files where
‘ld’ failed to parse the C++ comment. This has been fixed by now, but
there are still older assembler tools which cannot handle C++ style
comments.

Syntax:

A <SPDX License Expression> is either an SPDX short form license
identifier found on the SPDX License List, or the combination of two
SPDX short form license identifiers separated by “WITH” when a license
exception applies. When multiple licenses apply, an expression consists
of keywords “AND”, “OR” separating sub-expressions and surrounded by
“(”, ”)” .

License identifiers for licenses like [L]GPL with the ‘or later’ option
are constructed by using a “+” for indicating the ‘or later’ option.:

Exceptions can only be used with particular License identifiers. The
valid License identifiers are listed in the tags of the exception text
file. For details see the point Exceptions in the chapter License
identifiers.

OR should be used if the file is dual licensed and only one license is
to be selected. For example, some dtsi files are available under dual
licenses:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 OR BSD-3-Clause

Examples from the kernel for license expressions in dual licensed files:

AND should be used if the file has multiple licenses whose terms all
apply to use the file. For example, if code is inherited from another
project and permission has been given to put it in the kernel, but the
original license terms need to remain in effect:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: (GPL-2.0 WITH Linux-syscall-note) AND MIT

Another other example where both sets of license terms need to be
adhered to is:

The licenses currently used, as well as the licenses for code added to the
kernel, can be broken down into:

Preferred licenses:

Whenever possible these licenses should be used as they are known to be
fully compatible and widely used. These licenses are available from the
directory:

LICENSES/preferred/

in the kernel source tree.

The files in this directory contain the full license text and
Metatags. The file names are identical to the SPDX license
identifier which shall be used for the license in source files.

Examples:

LICENSES/preferred/GPL-2.0

Contains the GPL version 2 license text and the required metatags:

LICENSES/preferred/MIT

Contains the MIT license text and the required metatags

Metatags:

The following meta tags must be available in a license file:

Valid-License-Identifier:

One or more lines which declare which License Identifiers are valid
inside the project to reference this particular license text. Usually
this is a single valid identifier, but e.g. for licenses with the ‘or
later’ options two identifiers are valid.

SPDX-URL:

The URL of the SPDX page which contains additional information related
to the license.

Usage-Guidance:

Freeform text for usage advice. The text must include correct examples
for the SPDX license identifiers as they should be put into source
files according to the License identifier syntax guidelines.

License-Text:

All text after this tag is treated as the original license text

File format examples:

Valid-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
Valid-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
SPDX-URL: https://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-2.0.html
Usage-Guide:
To use this license in source code, put one of the following SPDX
tag/value pairs into a comment according to the placement
guidelines in the licensing rules documentation.
For 'GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 only' use:
SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
For 'GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or any later version' use:
SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
License-Text:
Full license text

SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
SPDX-URL: https://spdx.org/licenses/MIT.html
Usage-Guide:
To use this license in source code, put the following SPDX
tag/value pair into a comment according to the placement
guidelines in the licensing rules documentation.
SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
License-Text:
Full license text

Deprecated licenses:

These licenses should only be used for existing code or for importing
code from a different project. These licenses are available from the
directory:

LICENSES/deprecated/

in the kernel source tree.

The files in this directory contain the full license text and
Metatags. The file names are identical to the SPDX license
identifier which shall be used for the license in source files.

The metatag requirements for ‘other’ licenses are identical to the
requirements of the Preferred licenses.

File format example:

Valid-License-Identifier: ISC
SPDX-URL: https://spdx.org/licenses/ISC.html
Usage-Guide:
Usage of this license in the kernel for new code is discouraged
and it should solely be used for importing code from an already
existing project.
To use this license in source code, put the following SPDX
tag/value pair into a comment according to the placement
guidelines in the licensing rules documentation.
SPDX-License-Identifier: ISC
License-Text:
Full license text

Dual Licensing Only

These licenses should only be used to dual license code with another
license in addition to a preferred license. These licenses are available
from the directory:

LICENSES/dual/

in the kernel source tree.

The files in this directory contain the full license text and
Metatags. The file names are identical to the SPDX license
identifier which shall be used for the license in source files.

Examples:

LICENSES/dual/MPL-1.1

Contains the Mozilla Public License version 1.1 license text and the
required metatags:

LICENSES/dual/Apache-2.0

Contains the Apache License version 2.0 license text and the required
metatags.

Metatags:

The metatag requirements for ‘other’ licenses are identical to the
requirements of the Preferred licenses.

File format example:

Valid-License-Identifier: MPL-1.1
SPDX-URL: https://spdx.org/licenses/MPL-1.1.html
Usage-Guide:
Do NOT use. The MPL-1.1 is not GPL2 compatible. It may only be used for
dual-licensed files where the other license is GPL2 compatible.
If you end up using this it MUST be used together with a GPL2 compatible
license using "OR".
To use the Mozilla Public License version 1.1 put the following SPDX
tag/value pair into a comment according to the placement guidelines in
the licensing rules documentation:
SPDX-License-Identifier: MPL-1.1
License-Text:
Full license text

Exceptions:

Some licenses can be amended with exceptions which grant certain rights
which the original license does not. These exceptions are available
from the directory:

LICENSES/exceptions/

in the kernel source tree. The files in this directory contain the full
exception text and the required Exception Metatags.

Examples:

LICENSES/exceptions/Linux-syscall-note

Contains the Linux syscall exception as documented in the COPYING
file of the Linux kernel, which is used for UAPI header files.
e.g. /* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 WITH Linux-syscall-note */:

LICENSES/exceptions/GCC-exception-2.0

Contains the GCC ‘linking exception’ which allows to link any binary
independent of its license against the compiled version of a file marked
with this exception. This is required for creating runnable executables
from source code which is not compatible with the GPL.

Exception Metatags:

The following meta tags must be available in an exception file:

SPDX-Exception-Identifier:

One exception identifier which can be used with SPDX license
identifiers.

SPDX-URL:

The URL of the SPDX page which contains additional information related
to the exception.

SPDX-Licenses:

A comma separated list of SPDX license identifiers for which the
exception can be used.

Usage-Guidance:

Freeform text for usage advice. The text must be followed by correct
examples for the SPDX license identifiers as they should be put into
source files according to the License identifier syntax guidelines.

Exception-Text:

All text after this tag is treated as the original exception text

File format examples:

SPDX-Exception-Identifier: Linux-syscall-note
SPDX-URL: https://spdx.org/licenses/Linux-syscall-note.html
SPDX-Licenses: GPL-2.0, GPL-2.0+, GPL-1.0+, LGPL-2.0, LGPL-2.0+, LGPL-2.1, LGPL-2.1+
Usage-Guidance:
This exception is used together with one of the above SPDX-Licenses
to mark user-space API (uapi) header files so they can be included
into non GPL compliant user-space application code.
To use this exception add it with the keyword WITH to one of the
identifiers in the SPDX-Licenses tag:
SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX-License> WITH Linux-syscall-note
Exception-Text:
Full exception text

SPDX-Exception-Identifier: GCC-exception-2.0
SPDX-URL: https://spdx.org/licenses/GCC-exception-2.0.html
SPDX-Licenses: GPL-2.0, GPL-2.0+
Usage-Guidance:
The "GCC Runtime Library exception 2.0" is used together with one
of the above SPDX-Licenses for code imported from the GCC runtime
library.
To use this exception add it with the keyword WITH to one of the
identifiers in the SPDX-Licenses tag:
SPDX-License-Identifier: <SPDX-License> WITH GCC-exception-2.0
Exception-Text:
Full exception text

All SPDX license identifiers and exceptions must have a corresponding file
in the LICENSES subdirectories. This is required to allow tool
verification (e.g. checkpatch.pl) and to have the licenses ready to read
and extract right from the source, which is recommended by various FOSS
organizations, e.g. the FSFE REUSE initiative.

Loadable kernel modules also require a MODULE_LICENSE() tag. This tag is
neither a replacement for proper source code license information
(SPDX-License-Identifier) nor in any way relevant for expressing or
determining the exact license under which the source code of the module
is provided.

The sole purpose of this tag is to provide sufficient information
whether the module is free software or proprietary for the kernel
module loader and for user space tools.

The valid license strings for MODULE_LICENSE() are:

“GPL”

Module is licensed under GPL version 2. This
does not express any distinction between
GPL-2.0-only or GPL-2.0-or-later. The exact
license information can only be determined
via the license information in the
corresponding source files.

“GPL v2”

Same as “GPL”. It exists for historic
reasons.

“GPL and additional rights”

Historical variant of expressing that the
module source is dual licensed under a
GPL v2 variant and MIT license. Please do
not use in new code.

“Dual MIT/GPL”

The correct way of expressing that the
module is dual licensed under a GPL v2
variant or MIT license choice.

“Dual BSD/GPL”

The module is dual licensed under a GPL v2
variant or BSD license choice. The exact
variant of the BSD license can only be
determined via the license information
in the corresponding source files.

“Dual MPL/GPL”

The module is dual licensed under a GPL v2
variant or Mozilla Public License (MPL)
choice. The exact variant of the MPL
license can only be determined via the
license information in the corresponding
source files.

“Proprietary”

The module is under a proprietary license.
This string is solely for proprietary third
party modules and cannot be used for modules
which have their source code in the kernel
tree. Modules tagged that way are tainting
the kernel with the ‘P’ flag when loaded and
the kernel module loader refuses to link such
modules against symbols which are exported
with EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL().